Appeal No. 1998-1850
Application No. 08/596,613
around the contact opening....” Claim 1 recites “forming an insulating layer over the silicon
nitride layer and the aperture....” Claim 15 further recites the additional step of “removing
at least a portion of the metal ions that are implanted into the surface of the insulating
layer....”
The last-noted reference to “the insulating layer” thus lacks proper antecedent in the
claims. On one hand, being within claim 15 and in closer proximity to the “patterned
insulating layer,” the reference appears to be to the “patterned” insulating layer. On the
other hand, the reference does not specify “the patterned insulating layer,” and therefore
may refer to the “insulating layer” set forth in claim 1.
Moreover, it is unclear what a “patterned” insulating layer may be. The instant
specification relates, at page 9, lines 8-9, that the “insulating layer is...patterned with
photoresist and etched to form the contact opening.” The remaining portion of the
“insulating layer” is not formed “around the contact opening,” as recited in claim 15.
Rather, the contact opening is formed within the insulating layer, as shown in instant Figure
6 and further described on page 13, lines 1-11 of the specification.
In addition, the claim 15 requirement of two separate “insulating layers” is, at the
least, inconsistent with the disclosed invention. Claim 1 requires, inter alia, “forming a dual
gate structure on the silicon substrate with an aperture in the dual gate structure....” This
step is disclosed in appellants’ “alternate embodiment,” shown in Figure 11 (dual gate
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